Sirs,
Please add me to your mailing list. My son has found your website,
and i would like to be added to your mailing list. I am Ira C. Crytzer,
Jr. I was with I Co, 3dBN, 517th from it's days a t Fort Benning,
throughout the war. My mailing address is:
Ira C. Crytzer, Jr.
P.O. Box 2466
Williamsburg, Virginia 23188
Pat Seitz
Ben: May we join others in saying thanks to John Alicki for the
thoughts he shared. Pat Seitz and Alan Greer
Howard Hensleigh
Ben: For the moment we can report that Tom and Betty
Cross, Jan and I are ok. We expect no serious damage, but will lose
power from time to time. We trust you and Fran are enjoying your new
digs. Our love to all, Howard H.
Floyd Polk
A few minutes after I sent your e-mail our
electricity went out. At 8:35 p.m. tonight we were saying it would
probably be three weeks before we would have electricity because the transformer
burn out when just like that the lights came on!!!!
The hurricane is not completely gone as we are
having strong winds and rain but for now we are back to normal.
Floyd Polk
Chris Liddell
Dear Mr. Barrett, and the other members of "mail call" who
have been interested in hearing updates on the adoption of our ABSOLUTELY
ADORABLE, PERFECT little baby girl. She is, with no disrespect to all
of you other fathers and mothers, "The most beautiful baby in history, on the
entire planet earth........" Not that I'm biased or anything.....
:-) She's a tiny little rascal @ only 20 lbs.<and change>,
(although, resulting from her care giver being a
very kind foster Mother who has taken good care of her since she was only 4 days
old, she is VERY healthy and full of energy.) considering that she's 11+ months old. God
could not have blessed us with a more beautiful, wonderful, intelligent baby with
the most heart warming smile that I've ever seen.
Although Tammy and I were extremely excited about going to the
CAFCC's office
(China's
international adoption dept.) which was in her home town of Nannchang
(pronounced "Nanchung"
Oh,
which, by the way, that was after flying from
B'ham to Atlanta, from Atlanta to LAX, from
LAX to Guangzhou, and from
Guangzou to
Nanchang
all back to back w/ a total of 10 and 1/2 hours
worth of layovers in between. Then, our guide picked us up without our MAJOR jet
lag and, in my case. less than 3 hours of sleep (just a bit of excitement)
during the 3 days of flying, and without a shower or a clean change of clothes)
in the Jiangxi Province where we thought
she would just come to us and let us hold her in our arms, It actually turned
out to be the most heart breaking experience for Tammy and I as well as a very
heart wrenching and terrible experience for Lynzie and equally for Tammy and
I. She was terrified and was crying and screaming with such pain and
sorrow that it broke our hearts.
(I'm the one who carried her out while she was
trying her best to pry herself loose from me and screaming so hard that her face
was turning blue so I felt like a thief in the night steeling someone's
baby). Luckily, our guide who was
a very kind Chinese woman from Beijing, warned us ahead of time that she was
EXTREMELY attached to her foster mother and that she will go through some very
VERY major separation anxiety and she wasn't exaggerating. I was the one
who she (Feng Li Fang-Pronounced "Lee Foung" Her American name
is Lynzie Li Liddell
(Lynzie)
Her Chinese name given to
her by the CAFCC since you can't legally put your child up for adoption in China
resulting in us or the CAFCC never knowing her true family name or her parents
so ALL babies, children that come from that orphanage, or, in Lynzie's case,
was a member of that orphanage although she wasn't raised in it.)
clung to first after she cried so hard that it
literally exhausted her and I gave her a bottle of apple juice that she literally
sucked down in about 31 seconds, because she had also cried so much that
she was burning up hot and sweating profusely (the weather there was HOT AND HUMID to put it
lightly and we live in Alabama) and then she fell asleep in my arms when we got
back to the hotel. ALTHOUGH, after she woke up, she IMMEDIATELY pushed me
aside and took to Tammy. We soon found out why, after looking @ pics. of her
foster mother who had long dark brown hair like Tammy, a thin figure like Tammy,
facial features like Tammy and she was only 4 yrs. older than Tammy so it made
complete since after seeing them. Also, the F.Mother was single but had a
few boyfriends from time to time and most men in China DO NOT treat their wives
or children w/love (especially a female baby that's not even his) so, if she
was around any men, it prob. wasn't very good experiences. Although it's
been one step at a time and, in the beginning it broke my heart that, not only
could I not pick her up, feed her, chg. her diapers, etc., I couldn't even get
close to her. NOW, she and I sit in the floor and plat together for hours,
she constantly laughs at me while doing silly things, or, we laugh together
while watching cartoons. She also calls me "Da" instead of Dad which I
would be happy if she continues calling me that from now own because it's so
cute when she says it. If I leave the room, She starts yelling,
"DA"?......"Daa"!??.
Anyway, she has very fair skin, a
fuzzy little head of hair that's MUCH more thin, fine and brown (compared to the
head FULL OF JET BLACK HAIR that the other's have) than the other adopted babies
that were there at the same time. and she blows our minds with her intelligence
when it comes to putting a puzzle together, figuring out her toys, etc.
etc. Although her schedule is still, somewhat, on China time, she's
adjusting to the American time and she takes one nap for aprox. 1 hour in the
mid-AM, and a 2-2.5 hour nap @ aprox. 2:00PM. Then we all go to bed @
around 845PM and she usually sleeps VERY SOUND all night and, (a wonderful
discovery to me) she is a Big Time "Morning Person". Her "Da's" a morning
person too and we both usually wake up and play and watch cartoons @ around
4::30AM while Momma sleeps. (She definitely has the potential of being a deer
hunter like her "Da" :-) I already bought her (what Tammy
calls) "a onezie" that's made out of the "Advantage"
all
purpose camo and has "Little Chriis" embroidered on the front and lace
around the collar and across where her bottom is.:-) She also loves my
diff. mounted deer hanging on the wall of our Living Room so maybe that's a good
sign.....
Anyway, we are finally home and safe and
FINALLY A FAMILY!!!! Lynzie absolutely loves her new home
(now that we aren't moving from hotel to
hotel) and playing w/ all of her
new toys. Tammy and I are also EXTREMELY HAPPY to be back on American soil
and bringing Lynzie to a country where she's now (officially) a citizen.
Although it was interesting to see the country of The people's Republic of China
(which is couldn't be a more ridiculous name of a country since the country does
not have anything to do with "The People" but instead, it should be called, the
"Governments money making business of China" since the gov. makes the bucks and
the people work their fingers to the bones so the gov. can have them
money. Let me end on this note and I want go into any details...... 1) We
take our government, our freedoms, and our lifestyle for granted. (very badly
and we are ALL guilty of it- just some worse than others) 2) We think that we
know what it means to be poor when we don't even have a little bit of an idea
what "poor" means. 3)We take our jobs for granted and have the crazy idea
(thanks to unions in many cases) that our job, benefits, raises, and high wages
are OWED to us. We are SO WRONG..... Just a few of MANY things that I
noticed while in China and something to REALLY think about.
Thanks for your time and thanks for everyone who has been giving us
encouragement w/our adoption. We couldn't be happier and, as soon as I get
our 250+ digi-pics developed and downloaded onto disc, I will send Mr. Barrett a
pic of our new family while we were in China.
Sincerely,
Christopher M. Liddell
Grandson of
late,
Bobby M. Liddell
517th, F Co. Silver
Star Recipient